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Child, 2, dies after choking on snack

How did my child die? Who is responsible? These are questions Christopher Bethel, father of two-year-old Jaylon Isaac, want answered after his son died on Saturday after choking on a snack. According to police reports, the child was at his Dale Trace, Longdenville, Chaguanas, home on January 24 when he began to choke on a jello snack just after 8 am. He was rushed to the Chaguanas Health Facility and immediately transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Complex, Mt Hope. He was hospitalised there for just over a week before he died on February 1. Speaking with members of the media at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, yesterday, Bethel said he last saw his son on January 2 due to an ongoing custody dispute with the child’s mother, Oneka Isaac. “He was a fun child, people used to want to take him. Women would come up to me and ask me for him. He was a bundle of joy and something to live for, it sad that I can’t see the potential of what he would be in life,” Bethel said.

In a telephone interview with the T&T Guardian yesterday, the child’s mother said she was at work when she got a phone call from the babysitter, saying the child was choking on something.
Issac said the child was eventually taken to the Chaguanas Health Centre then transferred to the Eric Williams Medical Complex. The 22-year-old KFC cashier said Jaylon was accustomed to eating the snack. The autopsy report revealed the child died as a result of acute cerebral anoxia, which is caused by lack of oxygen to the brain. The cerebral anoxia caused the child to suffer a diffuse axonal injury, which meant the neurons in his brain died. According to a medical dictionary, cerebral anoxia is a condition in which oxygen is deficient in brain tissue. This state, which is caused by circulatory failure, can exist for no more than four to six minutes before the onset of irreversible brain damage. Police say investigations are continuing.